Former Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong stuck in cycle of hopelessness under a bridge in Kowloon
They left Vietnam seeking a better life but, after years in detention camps, drifted into poverty, drug dependency and crime. Jobless, homeless and unable to secure permanent residency, they are trapped in limbo on the city’s streets
Bui Quang Hiep fled North Vietnam for a better life in Hong Kong, only to end up jobless and homeless. With 10 convictions for petty crimes, Hiep has been living under a road bridge near the jade and stone market in the Sham Shui Po district of Kowloon for five years. Most of his convictions were drug-related. The 45-year-old says he was introduced to heroin by people he met under the bridge.
“Sometimes, I lose consciousness after taking drugs and wake up in a hospital,” he says.
Hiep, who arrived by boat at the age of 20 in 1986, was one of more than 200,000 refugees who reached Hong Kong after fleeing communism and poverty and lived in a total of 40 camps from 1975 to 2000.
Some 140,000 were eventually settled overseas, while 70,000 were repatriated. With no one to take them, the remaining detainees, numbering more than 1,000, were issued Hong Kong identity cards.
Hiep was issued an ID card in 1994 after he left a refugee camp in West Kowloon and has not left the city since. He cannot become a permanent resident because of his criminal convictions, so is unable to apply for public housing.